Archive for May, 2008

Yup, a new proprietary RPG released multiplatform. On Windows. On Mac. On Linux. Even on the Xbox 360. Demos available for all platforms Tycho & Gabe, along with PlayGreenhouse, have released the 1st Episode of On The Rainslick Precipice Of Darkness. For those unfamiliar, you should spend some time reading Tycho’s editorials and Gabe’s comic strips. I love Penny Arcade, and read it every update (Mon/Wed/Fri). I personally find it hysterical myself.

I’ve tried the Linux demo, as well as the 360 version. They both play well, and capture the feel of PA perfectly. Surprisingly, it ran as flawlessly on my Kubuntu box as well as my 360, so I have no complaints. I feel the urge to pick this up for Linux to show my support. At $20 per episode, it seems reasonable. I hear each episode should provide between 8-12 hours of play. Not too shabby, I guess. I’m just excited they threw in a native client. There’s also a thread on the Ubuntu Forums.

OK, I’ve decided to post how I got my Zen working under AmaroK, Gnomad2, etc.

!. Make sure you have mtpfs installed from the repo’s. I’ve never had this package installed before, and connectivity has always been sketchy at best. Install it:Sudo apt-get install mtpfs
2. Also install libmtp7, available from the repo’s, version 0.2.6.1-2ubuntu1. It’s very important to make sure you have libmtp6 removed if present. Use Synaptic before installing libmtp7 to fully remove libmtp6 prior to installing libmtp7.

I use primarily Amarok, so you need to add it to the devices Amarok sees:
From inside AmaroK
1.Settings >Configure AmaroK
2.Select Media Devices
3.Click Add Device
4. Choose the MTP Device plugin, and give the player a name, like Zen or Creative or MyMP3PlayerIsCoolerThanYours. Whatever.
5. I left the mount point blank. Click OK
6. Back in the main Amarok interface, select Devices on the bottom left, and on the upper menu select MTP Media Device if needed.
7. There’s a colorful little button right above this that says “Connect”. Click it. You know you want to…

Hopefully, your Zen will be detected, and scanned so your contents are displayed. Now, go add some music 🙂

After some tweaking, I must say I think I’ve gotten Hardy to be pretty rock solid for my needs.
Restricted Drivers, check
XMMS/streamtuner, check
Liquidweather++, check
Moto4lin, check
Creative Zen V Plus, check (yes, I had a bit of trouble, but I didn’t see much use in posting the fix. Maybe another day)

Most of my daily uses are working great now, either after minimal fuss, or straight out of the box. Since I’m running Kubuntu, it didn’t come with Firefox 3 (or any other flavor), so I use 2.0.0.14, as I know all of my extensions work correctly, and I’m not real impressed by some of the GUI changes in Beta 3 yet.

Now with the summer approaching, I’m considering getting a new laptop for myself (go one for Her for Christmas, running Gutsy). I’ve been pretty impressed by the Inspiron 1420 she’s running, so I’ll likely get one for myself as well.

I love Liquid Weather ++. It’s probably one of my favorite widgets to run in SuperKaramba. It’s handy, and I’ve even been told by my wife and daughter, “I want that cool weather on mine, too!”

Imagine my disappointment when I discovered it broken. It refused to pull any data for any city, period. At first, I suspected a dependency on Hardy was incompatible with LW, as it hasn’t been updated since mid-2007. After searching about, I found the following workaround: It seems that the snippet &prod=xoap must be deleted from the config files. To paraphrase:
1. Uncompress the lwp-14.8.skz file into a new directory. (I cheated and used winrar under wine. The compression tools I have installed currently refused to extract a .skz)

2. Enter the new directory, open a Konsole there, and remove all instances of &prod=xoap from liquid_weather.py and lwp_config.py:

sed -i 's/&prod=xoap//' liquid_weather.py lwp_config.py

3. Uninstall Liquid Weather from SuperKaramba, and then re-add it from the Open Local menu, choosing the new extracted & edited location. Once running, reload Liquid Weather if needed.

Thanks to the user fluxbox on the LW++ forums for providing this fix 🙂

I’ve mentioned previously how D&D sparked my imagination & love of books, but when the recent news reports that Wizards is releasing a new version, I breezed over it and realized something: My fond memories are from AD&D. I loved the variety of dice, the homegrown feel of everything. The game, the franchise, has evolved into this d20 thing that is reported to be nothing like what I remember. It makes me more than a bit sad; I am heartbroken that I didn’t keep those old hardbacks books if for nothing more than nostalgia.

Enter OSRIC. the Old School Reference and Index Compilation. This compiles the old AD&D rules into a new volume, free of charge. You can continue playing the (best) version of the game you want. Even though it’s unlikely I’ll ever play again, I’m ecstatic that these core instructions will continue to be available. Apparently, its been ruled that rules are not copyrightable, so a few changes to exclude some trademarks and these folks are set. You can even order a printed set for a nominal fee. Go check it out.